"We all want to be first to average 200 mph" on the 90-mile course, said Chuck Shafer, last September’s winner of the Silver State Classic Challenge open road event at almost 198 mph average speed. "And if one of us gets to 200 mph, we want to be faster," he added about the May 21, 2000, edition of the event, held twice each year.

Shafer’s 600+ horsepower Chrysler LeBaron-bodied former speedway race car may get him the best odds of being the first to average 200 mph at a public highway event, since he’ll be the first driver in the unlimited class to start the event. Drivers start one minute apart and race the clock for 90 miles of two-lane desert highway. The event runs on state route 318 from Lund to Hiko, Nevada, beginning at 8 a.m. "If somebody else gets to the 200 mph average too, at least we’ll be the first," said Shafer, an Oregon-based racer, car collector and businessman.

This isn’t an outlaw event—it’s a sanctioned, legal event that’s been held every year since 1988. Almost all of the 200 entrants are amateur racers. Entries for the May 21 event were filled in April, and already more than 100 racers have reserved starting spots in the September, 2000, event.

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page two The 200-mph Public Highway Chase

Contact: Phil Henry 702-456-9660

"I’d like to be the first person to get to 200 mph," said driver Rick Doria, an open highway racer whose modified Corvette averaged 195 mph at the September, 1999, event. "You’ve gotta be safe, and we’ve certainly got the tools to do it," added Doria, whose heavily modified Corvette has hit peak speeds of more than 215 mph. "Right now we can easily run at 210. You have to run at 210 to 220—that’s what it takes."

Perennial open road event driver Dave Golder is entering a modified Winston Cup stock car, fresh from the stables of the Tony Stewart Home Depot NASCAR team. "It’s a big difference compared to my Viper," said Golder. "At 170 we could really feel the wind buffeting the Viper. In this car, you can’t tell if you’re going 130 or 200, it’s so stable."

Events begin Thursday, May 18, at the Showboat Hotel and Casino on the Boulder Strip in Las Vegas, with driver qualifying at Las Vegas International Speedway Park. On Friday, May 19, cars are paraded 245 miles north to the rustic, wild west town of Ely, Nevada. This trip is an excellent photo opportunity of the cars on the road. Saturday, May 20, is a parc ferme at the Ely high school football field, where all of the racecars will be on public display. At 5 a.m. Sunday morning, May 21, highway 318 is closed to the public, and at 8 a.m. the cars are scheduled to start, one-by-one, and race the clock for 90 miles. The course begins in the town of Lund, 40 miles south of Ely, and ends just before the town of Hiko.

There’s no cash prize fund, but the winner in the unlimited class is immortalized on a perpetual trophy that resides in the Carson City statehouse in the state’s capital city.

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